Understand the hidden tax on your trades — and learn to read the chart.
What you will learn
Understand MEV and front-running
Read candlesticks and patterns
Connect the two: why fair ordering matters
Reading a candlestick
Reading a candlestick
Fair sequencing (AEON Patent #5)
Fair sequencing (AEON Patent #5)
What MEV is
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) is profit bots extract by seeing your transaction before it settles and acting first — front-running your trade, sandwiching it, or racing ahead of you. In transparent mempools, your order is visible to every bot before it lands.
💡 The sandwich attack
You submit a big buy. A bot sees it, buys first (pushing the price up), lets your order fill at the higher price, then sells back (pushing it down). You paid more; the bot pocketed the difference. This 'sandwich' is a hidden tax on naive trades.
AEON's answer: fair ordering
AEON's entropy-seeded ordering (Patent #5) removes the predictable first-come-first-served queue that bots exploit. Orders are sequenced using a cryptographic, unpredictable seed — so bots can't reliably front-run. It's a structural fix, not a speed race.
Reading a candlestick
A candlestick shows open, high, low, and close for a period. A green candle closed higher than it opened; a red candle closed lower. The body is open-close; the wicks show the high-low extremes. Candles compress a whole session of battle into one shape.
💡 What a long wick means
A long upper wick means price was pushed high but rejected — sellers overwhelmed buyers. A long lower wick means buyers stepped in at the lows. Wicks reveal rejection; bodies reveal conviction. Read them together to see who's in control.
Patterns are probability, not prophecy
Dojis, hammers, engulfing candles — these patterns describe recurring crowd psychology, but they're probabilistic, not predictive. They work best in combination with volume, context, and risk management, never as a standalone signal.
❓ Quick check
A sandwich attack makes the victim:
A) Pay less
B) Pay more (bot front-runs both sides)
C) Nothing
D) Earn fees
Bot buys before and sells after your order.
(Knowledge check — full exam is next)
Key takeaways
MEV = bots extracting value from your visible orders
Candles show open/high/low/close; wicks = rejection, bodies = conviction
AEON's fair ordering is a structural defense against front-running
📝 Weekly Exam — pass with 80% to unlock next week
10 questions. Review the Deep Dive and courses before attempting.
1. MEV stands for:
Maximal Extractable Value.
2. Front-running happens because:
Transparent mempool = visible orders.
3. A sandwich attack involves a bot:
Buys before, sells after.
4. AEON's fair-ordering defense uses:
Unpredictable sequencing.
5. A green candle means:
Closed higher than it opened.
6. A long upper wick suggests:
Rejection at the highs.
7. Candlestick patterns are best described as:
Probabilistic, not prophetic.
8. The 'body' of a candle is:
Body = open-close.
9. Fair ordering is a ___ defense against MEV:
It removes the exploitable queue.
10. Candles are most reliable when combined with:
Context and volume matter.
Your score: —
🛠 Weekly Project
Read 5 candles and find one rejection.
1
Open a 1-hour chart of any asset.
2
Identify the open, high, low, close of 5 consecutive candles.
3
Find one candle with a long wick and describe what it suggests (rejection or support).
4
Write one sentence connecting what you saw to the MEV/front-running concept.